(Cross-posted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.)
Are they kidding?
An adviser to Sen. John McCain made some revealing comments to the Dallas Morning News yesterday, showing the truly wrong-headed thinking that has shaped McCain’s health care policies.
John Goodman, who helped write McCain’s health care plan, said we can solve the problem of the uninsured by pretending they don’t exist. Really.
I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime....The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American as uninsured.
So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved.
Goodman’s brilliant plan is based on his perception that anyone who needs health care can just show up at an emergency room and get necessary care. If that sounds familiar, it should: It’s the Bush health care plan, too.
I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.
Indeed, emergency rooms might see a lot more traffic under McCain’s health care proposal, as millions could be pushed out of employer-provided care and left at the mercy of the private market with high co-pays and a shameful lack of consumer protections. McCain’s plan would also tax the health care benefits workers get on the job. This all might be great for the insurance industry and its lobbyists, but it’s a terrible deal for working families.
Here’s what you can’t get in an emergency room: Preventative care. Attention over time. Routine checkups and screenings. And emergency care is the most expensive, least cost-effective way to provide health care. In fact, the large number of uninsured people seeking emergency care drives up the costs of health care for everyone. (According to Families USA, even premiums for employer-provided health care cost more because of the uninsured.)
Here’s a clue, Mr. Goodman: You can’t just argue out of existence 46 million people—most of whom are employed—who are suffering from having no health care coverage. Changing the definitions is a cute way to ignore the problem, but it doesn’t give secure, high-quality health care to a single person.
What is it with McCain’s team? Already this year, McCain has blamed homeowners for causing the housing crisis by failing to skip vacations or work multiple jobs. He’s pushed for an anti-worker trade deal with Colombia—in front of a shuttered Ohio factory. He’s surrounded himself with lobbyists such as the campaign manager who could be responsible for killing jobs in Ohio. And, of course, his "economic brain" is the guy who told concerned working families that they are "a nation of whiners," while McCain himself is convinced that our economic problems are "psychological."
McCain has spent decades in Washington, getting his health insurance on the taxpayers’ dime, so he’s about as aware about the effects of his health care plan as he is about the number of houses he has. But for 46 million uninsured people—and the millions more who could lose their coverage under his plan—pretending they don’t exist is no solution. We need leaders who are looking to solve our nation’s health care crisis, not sweep it under the rug.
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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.